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"Oh, heavens, today is my day for being proved by hard questions," Alinor exclaimed. She gestured her daughter to a seat. "What put this into your head?" |
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"Saint Agatha," Joanna said succinctly. |
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"Oh." Alinor wondered why she was always cursed with chaplains who were as good and kind and virtuous as they were unworldly, unwise and impractical. One could not explain to Father Francis that this was the wrong time to give a nine-year-old stories to read about martyrdom to preserve purity. First of all, it was unlikely that Father Francis' mind had grasped the fact that Alinor was planning to marry again five months after her husband's death. Even if it had, he would see no connection. Chastity was, of course, the holiest state, but as Paul said, "It is better to marry than to burn." Marriage, for those who were not strong enough for total continence, was not an unchaste state. |
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"Well," Alinor temporized, "Saint Agatha had dedicated her body to God. She wished to keep it unspotted for Him." |
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"But would it not be better to use it to some good purpose, such as converting the man who desired her, than to die?" |
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Alinor struggled with herself and, as usual, lost. She chuckled. "My love, I am afraid I think as you do, but that is because I am a coarse and worldly creature. For the holy, purity is more important than life. The question is not likely to arise for you. The future Lady of Roselynde will not need to take the veil. You will need to marry and breed up heirs." |
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"Were you chaste, Mother?" |
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"Yes, Joanna. I knew no man until I married your father, and I never touched another man in all the years that we were man and wifetouched in the way of love, I mean." Alinor said nothing of how willing she had been to take Simon, in or out of wedlock. Alinor did not lie to her children, but it was not a lie to |
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